


Blunder

by AvisPraeda



Category: Final Fantasy XIV, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Final Fantasy XIV, Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood Spoilers, Gen, Minor Violence, Not Canon Compliant, Past Violence, Post-Kingdom Hearts III
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-12 08:30:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19943206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvisPraeda/pseuds/AvisPraeda
Summary: Sora was convinced that they could successfully ambush and take down Zenos. Riku knew better.





	Blunder

**Author's Note:**

> A bit from a FFXIV AU that I had sitting around. Spoilers from early Stormblood (like mid level 61 quests) and I guess minor later too for helmetless Zenos?
> 
> Sometime post-KH3 they end up going to The Source because reasons.

“We can stop him here.”

Riku snapped his head towards Sora so fast he got whiplash. “What?”

Sora didn't meet his gaze, held firmly on their target below, but he could see the fire in his eyes. “Right here. We can beat Zenos and stop him from harming anyone else.”

“Sora, no.” When Sora looked up, Riku was balking at him, mouth agape and shaking his head, a somewhat poor idea given his now sore neck. “You shouldn't— _We_ shouldn't fight him. Not right now.”

“Why not?!” He almost shouted, catching himself just before the words left his tongue and adjusting them to a forceful whisper instead. “He's alone, his soldiers aren't anywhere to be seen. We have the chance to surprise him! We can do this!”

Riku's hand clapped on Sora's shoulder, pressing down firm as if to hold him in place. “No, we _can't._ He's...” He licked his lips, eyes dropping as he scrambled in his rising anxiety to piece together the right words. “That man is on an entirely different level. He's _nothing_ like the Organization, Xehanort, or any Heartless for that matter.”

The memories of that night clouded his mind in a thick fog. He could see it in the reflections of the puddles, hear it over the patter of the rain—the smoke, the shouting, the carnage as the Garleans swept through the Reach, the bloodied and crumpled bodies of their friends as Zenos knocked each of them away like nothing more than bugs. Even now he felt grateful that Sora's scouting party returned late, that he didn't witness it or, God forbid, _experience_ that defeat first hand. The one moderately positive outcome of the whole ambush.

A gentle touch to Riku's hand brought him out of the memory, blinking up at Sora's hand covering his, and that reassuring grin. “Trust me, Riku. I have an idea.” His hand slipped off as he watched Sora rise from his crouch, stretching one arm across his chest, then the other, and finally he unsheathed the katana at his hip. “If this doesn't work out, then, well, we have those crystals. We can just leave, right?”

Where it would normally ease his fears, unravel and smooth out the knots in his chest, Sora's unrelenting optimism only layered further dread upon Riku's shoulders this time. Green eyes grew wide as he watched Sora point the blade towards Zenos's back, a familiar red glow coalescing at the tip. He reacted too late.

“Sora, _don't—!_ ”

A fireball burst forth from the sword, hurtling right towards the Garlean's uncovered head in a direct hit—or at least, what would've been one had he not swatted it out of the air with a flick of the wrist, completely unaffected as the spell exploded harmlessly on the ground instead.

Sora gasped in surprise, reeling back. “But how!?” Quickly recovering, he prepared another spell, lightning crackling around the tip this time.

As Zenos's arm dropped, so did Riku's stomach. Immediately his focus locked on that revolving holster of blades, anticipating a retaliation with his own weapon in a white-knuckled grip. There was no way, no possible way he could successfully block an attack from that man and not get flung back at best, mortally wounded at worst, but it was better him than Sora taking a blow of that caliber. 

It never came, and instead Zenos lifted his head.

“I don't recall spell casting being part of a Samurai's repertoire. If your only trick is producing fireworks, however, then I urge you to make yourself scarce. Your Scions have been woefully disappointing, and I will not tolerate having to endure another let down.” Zenos's voice forced shiver down Riku's back, skin breaking out in goosebumps, but that was the best response he could've possibly hoped for. They were being let off. Even Sora seemed to notice this, blade lowered and spell dissipating into the air. The mounting adrenaline had begun to suffocate him while he fumbled around his pockets, searching for the crystal to get them both the hell out of there, when Sora jumped from their shared perch and any prospect of leaving unscathed shattered. Riku bit his lip to stop from screaming, and followed him down. 

Surprisingly enough, Sora had sheathed the katana when he landed, but had no intentions on backing down. “That was a dirty tactic, going out of your way to attack Rhalgr's Reach so suddenly! This whole war could stop if you'd be willing to negotiate, but you're purposely making it worse, causing more chaos, and for _what?!_ What could hurting all these people possibly do for you?!” He shouted, fists clenched at his sides. For a moment, the outburst from Sora burned over and ignited the same fire in Riku, disgust and rage worming its way between his ribs and up his throat in words and declarations of revenge that threatened to spill. He grit his teeth to keep it in check, to choke his breath down, but the glare he levered at Zenos said what his voice would not.

A flash from beside him caught his attention then. Sora had taken his Keyblade in hand. The fire was extinguished immediately all at once, leaving nothing in its wake but sheer, frozen panic. Sora wouldn't. _He **wouldn't.**_

They both moved at the exact same moment, but Sora had always been the faster of the two and Riku's attempt at lashing out to snatch him only resulted in fingers grazing the fabric of Sora's hood. Time slowed down as he saw beyond his outstretched hand, beyond Sora, Zenos had pulled out one of his swords and turned. Sora had anticipated the incoming counterattack though, pivoting on his heel and strafing to the side instead of taking the chance to swing. Thus began a delicate dance of Sora flitting just outside of Zenos's reach, flinging spell after spell and weaving between any attack sent his way, with Zenos wholly and utterly unfazed as he lazily cut through each of Sora's casts. Shortly into the duel, if Riku could even call something so one-sided that, Sora jumped back and hovered in the air, focusing the Keyblade at his opponent for all of a split-second before he shot forward. He moved so fast that Riku still missed it without blinking, that Zenos didn't even get a chance to react, right up in his face with his Keyblade wound up and glowing, and _slammed_ it right into the side of Zenos's head—A blow strong enough to topple buildings, to break the strongest of barriers and fell the largest of Heartless, so powerful the hit that it kicked up debris from below, and Riku had to wince and shield his face with his gunblade.

He barely registered what happened before he heard Sora drop down beside him and bark that cheerful laugh. “How's that, hm? I told you, Ri, we can do this!”

It was enough to get Riku laughing too, the beginnings of a smile awkwardly curving his lips, though it was brittle and uneasy, still laced with concern over Sora's safety and the knowledge that it couldn't be that easy, things were far from over. He didn't know just how right he was until the dust began to settle, and upon looking up to assess the damage his hand instinctively dove back into his pocket to grasp for the crystal.

Zenos stood exactly as relaxed as before, not having moved an _inch_ save for his head, which had only turned slightly from the hit. It looked as though he hadn't been struck at all, save for the smoke rising from the bright red welt on his cheek. In those moments, as Riku stared in disbelief—no he knew, he _knew_ this would happen—at the terrible grin slowly cracking on that normally stoic face, he could feel the frigid grip of finality clawing its way around his throat.

And then Zenos sighed in a way that sounded relieved, _pleasured_ almost.

“...Oh, yes. Now _this._ This will do just nicely. After so, so long of this dreadfully boring farce, finally a person worthy of the hunt emerges from the rabble. And that blade of yours is certainly no glamour.” He lifted his head, eyes open uncannily wide as he shot Sora a grin that was painful to look at and agonizingly wrong. “Will you not show me more of it?”

Slowly, Riku turned to look at Sora. If the way his confident smirk melted off his face and twisted into sheer horror was anything to go by, it had finally occurred to him just how grave the mistake he made was.


End file.
